HM Prison Winchester

HMP Winchester

HM Prison Winchester
Location	Winchester, Hampshire
Security class	Adult Male/Category B
Capacity	706 (as of April 2013) [1]
Population	685 [2] (as of February 2014)
Opened	19th century
Managed by	HM Prison Service
Governor	Stephanie Roberts-Bibbly
Website	Winchester at justice.gov.uk

HM Prison Winchester is a Category B men's prison, located in Winchester, Hampshire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.

History

There has probably been a prison in Winchester, mainly known as Winchester gaol, since the thirteenth century.^[3]

Winchester Prison was built to a Victorian radial design, with five 'spokes' radiating from a central hub. Four of these are used for prisoner accommodation and one for administration.

Between 1900 and 1963, 16 executions took place at the prison. The last was that of Dennis Whitty, convicted of capital murder at Cornwall Assizes, and hanged on 17 December 1963.

In 1995 serial killer Rosemary West, wife of Fred West, was held in Winchester on remand for the duration of her trial in Winchester Crown Court. Each day she was driven from her specially built unit within the male segregation block half a mile down the road to the court.^[4]

In December 2001, a convicted murderer escaped from Winchester Prison by scaling the wall. The prisoner went on the run after using a home-made handsaw to saw through the bars of his ground floor cell window. He then used a rope and grappling hook to scale the 30-feet wall of the prison. The prisoner was recaptured days later.^[5]

In August 2003, a Prison Reform Trust report stated that overcrowding at Winchester Prison was an ongoing problem. 54.7% of prisoners were sharing cells which were designed for one person. There had also been 3 suicides at the jail in the previous year.^[6]

In April 2005, an inspection report from Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons stated that Winchester Prison was overcrowded and prisoners did not have enough work to do. The report also said that vulnerable inmates were not well protected and relations between staff and prisoners were not good. However, the report praised prisoner resettlement and improvements in healthcare at the jail.^[7]

The Inspectorate was still dissatisfied with Winchester at their inspection in 2010, stating that staff were unnecessarily rude and that prisoners spent too long in their cells with nothing to do. The team was especially critical of the discrimination that occurred between the West Hill annexe and the main prison in terms of employment and purposeful activity.^[8]

The prison today

Winchester is a Category B prison for adult males. The prison is currently undergoing major refurbishment with a build programme lasting 5 years. Work already completed includes changes to the health care, first night and detoxification centres, as well as a new electrical system, renewal of the fire and general alarms, a new visits complex and pedestrian access at the main gate. The rebuilding of C wing, that was suffering from age decay, was completed in 2008 and the first prisoners were moved into the new cells in October 2008.

The Prison has 4 wings. The first being "A" Wing that was supposed to house induction inmates for their 1st night but has since turned into a permanent wing. "B" Wing is the biggest wing which is mainly there for remanded prisoners. "C" wing is the drug detox wing and houses prisoners that are there with drug issues mainly. "D" is the vulnerable prisoner wing and houses prisoners that are a threat to themselves or other prisoners. E wing is used for offices. There is a category C offshoot called "Westhill" which has 3 wings. "Alfred", "Temple" and "Wykham". There is also a D Cat offshoot called "The Herne" which has 40 cells all single.

By December 2010, the Prison offered a limited selection of Freeview channels to all cells.

The Regime at HMP Winchester claims to deliver an average of 22 hours of Purposeful Activity per prisoner per week. However, this is regularly disputed by inspection reports^[9] and prisoners themselves.

Education at the prison is provided through Milton Keynes College, and is available irrespective of academic ability, but only limited courses are available to prisoners segregated under Prison Rule 45. Other facilities include a prison gym.

There have been many deaths in Winchester Prison. Daryl Hargrave aged 22 hanged himself in Winchester Prison on 19th July, 2015, a day after another prisoner at the jail took his life. The inquest into Hargrave's death found adequate mental health care had not been provided, despite repeated warnings Hargrave was risk of self harm. Hargrave had repeatedly self-harmed and attempted suicide and suffered mental health problems from a young age. In the days before his death Hargrave was clearly psychotic and told staff he planned to harm himself according to lawyers. The day before his suicide, Hargrave cut himself and told a nurse he was 'ground down by voices telling him to kill himself.' The nurse asked for him to be moved to an observation cell and put on constant watch. The prison’s two observation cells were in use and Hargrave was instead put in a corner cell which one nurse described as the “worst place to put someone who was suicidal, as it was out of sight, out of mind”. Consultant forensic psychiatrist, Dr Dinesh Maganty, said Hargrave showed clear evidence of psychosis and a GP or psychiatrist should have seen him urgently. Maganty said Hargrave should have received medication to help with anxiety and agitation due to his psychosis and criticised failure to provide it. The Portsmouth and south-east assistant coroner Harrold, said due to the case she was “gravely concerned” over the risk of further deaths at the prison. A report is intended. The governor told the jury in 2015, just 41% of staff were sufficiently trained in suicide and self-harm prevention. This has now risen to 61% but progress was slow as because of 'resourcing issues' and the governor accepted this is not good enough.^[10] A coroner found neglect contributed to Daryl Hargrave's death. A prison inspection found the prison was, "insufficiently safe" and anti-bullying measures were ineffective.^[11]

Many prisoners spend just 45 minutes a day out of their cells. There is weak support for prisoners at risk of self harm and there have been five suicides since the last inspection in 2014. New prisoners are reasonably well treated, initiatives to prevent violence are good and the prison is making progress in many areas. However limits to time out of cells reduces the good the prison can do.^[12]

Notable former inmates

• All but one of the Richmond Sixteen, First World War "absolutist" conscientious objectors^[13]
• Dennis Whitty^[14]
• Basil Bunting^[15]
• Keith Mann
• Rosemary West^[4]

In popular culture

• The prison appeared in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, as it was used for location shooting, as well as an aerial shot.

References

External links

• Ministry of Justice pages on Winchester

Coordinates: 51°03′47″N 1°19′41″W / 51.063°N 1.328°W / 51.063; -1.328